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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap.. , CopjrigM No. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






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(Sleaninge 



THE FELT PRINT, 
WORCESTER. 



V X 




GLEANINGS: 



FROM THE WRITINGS OF 



J 



The Reverend David 0. Mears, D. D. 



)^ 



^•^ 



worcester, mass.: 

The Wynhope Publishing Co. 

1893. 




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4/ 
i 



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To the Members of Piedmont Churchy as a 
me7nento of an honored arid well-beloved pastor^ 
who walked with them for sixteen consecutive 
years. 

The publishers^ by consent of Dr. Mears., have 
gathered from stenographic ser7no7ts and notes., 
and various sources., the crystalized statements 
of truth found in this little volu7ne. They exte7id 
thanks to the f7'iends who have helped them 
in the compilation. 

The Publishers. 



Copyright, i8q3, by C. A. Hoppin, Jr. 



mt Book of ffl^oD. 

Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know 
thou it for thy good. — Job v: 27. 

" In the bitter waves of woe. 

Beaten and tossed about 
By the sullen winds that blow 

From the desolate shores of doubt, 
I am quietly holding fast 

To the thmgs that cannot fail." 

The book that has created literature is litera- 
ture's best guide. 

Infidelity borrows its tliemes from the book it 
affects to despise. 

The kingdom of God is broader than early 
constitutions and creeds. The infallibility of the 
truth rests upon the word of revelation, not upon 
the church. Protestantism gives no authority to 
man and the councils, hence the importance of 
holding closely to the revealed word. 

Human nature is not quiescent ; if it does not 
go forward, it goes backward ; if it does not grow 



better, it grows worse; if it does not learn some- 
thing new, it is all the time forgetting what was 
learned in the past. Such a nature needs the book 
that has conserved the past and points to the 
future ; and just as the sunbeams all lead us back 
to the sun, so the new truths of God will forever 
lead us back to the source of the old. 

We are not expected to reveal the Savior 
merely as he seemed to Matthew and John, but as 
he seems to us. 

In the path where God's book has been 
merely carried, prosperity has come. 

?gumanit]j. 

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, 
— ECCLES. IX: II. 

" The lives which seem so poor, so low, 

The hearts which are so cramped and dull, 

The baffled hopes, the impulse slow, 
Thou takest, touchest all, and lo! 

They blossom to the beautiful." 

In the methods of Christ, all progress works 
upwards. His work was given to the poor and 
broken-hearted. He was working a revolution 



among the common people that would soon reach 
the Pharisees and the Scribes. The revolutions 
of history have been on the same principle. The 
farmers of New England shook the throne of 
Britain. The leaders in the anti-slavery movement, 
long scorned and despised, at length placed the 
once rail-splitter in the White House, and with a 
stroke of his pen, he made four millions free. 
Men recognize a top and a bottom to society, but 
they cannot keep the top clean and health)?^ without 
giving constant attention to those now despised. 
The gospel begins at the roots of society. 
What we call society is often more concerned with 
the lower classes than it dreams. Toiling wom.en 
in filthy tenements have often sent garments 
infected with poison into the chambers of the rich ; 
death in the palace is sometimes the penalty for 
neglect of the suffering poor. 

Unstable as water thou shalt not excel. — Gen. XLIX : 4. 

"To be the thing we seem. 
To do the thing we deem 
Enjoined by duty." 

Character is made by choice ; not by deeds. 
5 



Man is never better than he is when he is 
alone. 

Men are of value in proportion as they rise 
above difficulties and obstacles. It is not the hard 
times evaded, but those borne and endured that 
reveal power. 

It is not a liberal education that makes one a 
man. Many another, like the great commoner, 
Henry Clay, educates himself to surpass many 
whose higher advantages have been thrown away. 
Men very largely make themselves; whether a 
liberal education or self education, it is very much 
the same ; the man makes himself. But in all this 
self-education, much or everything depends upon 
how we spend the fragments of our time. 

Every one's ability for accomplishing good 
depends upon what he is in himself. He must be 
greater than any storm that blows against him. 
The elder Pitt gave the secret of his success when 
he said: "I trample upon impossibilities." Indi- 
vidual power is proportioned to the strength 
within. It is not the hardness of the work that 
hinders success : but the hardness of our hearts. 

There is no strength without symmetry. 
Samson's strength was counter-balanced by his 
moral weakness. The keenest experts in any line 
may lack strength. 

6 



Entii&ttsual i^egponsititlitg* 

Whatsoever a man soiveth^ that shall he also reap. — 
Gal. VI : 7. 

For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. — PsALM 
CXXXIX: 14. 

' * The life above when this is past, 
Is the ripe fruit of life below." 

" Sow love, and taste its fruitage pure ! 
Sow peace, and reap its harvest bright ; 
Sow sunbeams on the rock and moor. 
And find a harvest home of light." 

The very thought that no one but ourselves is 
responsible for what we are to be, is overwhelming 
in its weight. 

Just here come in the questions of amusement. 
Whole evenings are wasted in doing nothing of any 
practical importance or usefulness. Far be it from 
me to say that all work would be wise, but the 
danger is the other way. For how many hours in 
each twenty-four are we prepared to give a good 



account? These suggestions are made to incite 
thouglitfulness in the minds of those who will 
appreciate them better bye and bye. 

Whoever becomes the mouthpiece of some 
one else is only a man's shadow ; and of all shadows, 
a human shadow, bowing when others bow, 
applauding because others applaud, is the most 
pitiable. You may bolster men, but this gives no 
manhood ; may extol them above their deserts, but 
ail the puffs of adulation make them no stronger. 
The whole world cannot make any man to be 
v/orth more than he is in himself. 

Better not to live than to drag out a useless 
existence. 

The characters of those we trust declare our 
own character. If we put inferior men into the 
high places, that very fact reveals our negligence as 
citizens. If we allow corrupt men to usurp places 
too good for them, we condemn ourselves. In such 
an instance it is not their integrity that is to be 
specially questioned, but our own. 

We might write up deeds of the past ; we could 
even recount how many we had tried to help in the 
new life ; but a religious hope that depends upon 
some old experience, is as dry as the dust that 
sweeps the highways. What we are is a thousand- 
fold more important than what we have been. 



If we do not grow, we die. If we are clinging 
to the hope we have had, we shall soon have no 
hope at all. We live by looking forwards, not 
backwards. 

Every life is either great or small according as 
the ideal is large or insignificant. 

That man is not fit to live who finds pleasure 
in robbing others for the sake of himself. The 
man who can coolly defraud another, under a 
technicality of the law, is no whit better than a 
highwayman. 

SDempierance* 

There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets. — 
Prov. XXVI: 13. 

" They are slaves who fear to speak 

For the fallen and the weak ; 
They are slaves who will not choose 

Hatred, scoffing and abuse, 
Rather than in silence shrink 

From the truth they needs must think ; 
They are slaves who dare not be 

In the right with two or three." 

Let the great party of freedom dare assume the 
cause of what is right rather than what is merely 
politic, and it will not have to wait forever to be- 



come what it was in the days when its leaders were 
more willing to die for a principle than to seek for 
an office. 

God never imposed a law that was not de- 
manded in the very nature of the creatures He has 
made. 

A terrible meaning lies hidden in the very 
common word — intemperance, the cutting off from 
time. Our other word — intoxication — denotes an 
arrow dipped in poison. 

The ocean can not wreck man so easily as 
man's own will. 

When bad men stand in the way of what is 
right the pulpit must not be muzzled or silent. 

Ninety-nine per cent, of criminals are familiar 
with the saloon before they become criminals. 

May the day never come when the lips of this 
church shall be dumb in the presence of the monster 
evil of the day. So long as it holds the memory of 
John B< Gough it will never go back on its record 
in order to please any who would be indifferent to 
the ravages of sin. 

For the future be strong and of good courage in 



making your power felt against every enemy of the 
public. 

May God grant it true that every business man 
in Worcester shall reckon good morals worth more 
than dollars and cents. 

The most restricted license will not abate in 
the least the evils of the drink traffic. There never 
was a saloonist yet that has taken out a license at 
a higher cost but has increased his business suf- 
ficiently to meet the increase of cost. The heavier 
the license, the fewer the saloons, and the larger the 
establishments of those who are licensed. The 
few can do the work of the many. The law of 
supply and demand is the same in wet goods that 
it is in dry goods. 

It is not the darkness that makes each night 
sad; but the thought of the activities of the 
corruptors of youth makes the darkness black. 

What is to accomplish the saving of the young 
men.? Nothing less than public sentiment; the 
moment that public opinion sets itself against 
wrong any evil disappears. 

It is the saddest word of God, when to the 
wicked destroyer of his powers he is compelled to 
say ; " Take, therefore, the talent from him." 



Courage* 

Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou 
may est observe to do according to all the law ; turn not 
from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest 
prosper whithersoever thou goest. — Joshua i : 7. 

The joy of the Lord is your strength — Neh. viii : 10. 

" Oh, there are heavenly heights to reach 
In many a fearful place, 
Where the poor timid heir of God 
Lies blindly on his face ; 
Lies languishing for grace divine, 
That he shall never see 
Till he go forward at Thy sign, 
And trust himself to Thee " 

Courage means goodness crystalized into 
action. 

It requires courage to defy public opinion, but 
public opinion is often on the wrong side of 
questions of truth and righteousness. 

One may be as far ahead of his time in 
knowledge as Galileo, and yet be as timid as when 
the great scholar kneeled and denied even what he 
knew. Not every Christian has courage. 

The cruelest king is sometimes a social opin- 
ion, and to break such a rule is the acme of 
courage. 



No advancement comes in any direction except 
through difficulties and against opposition. 

Good citizenship is as dependent upon courage 
as it is upon the blameless lives of the citizens. 
Coruage therefore depends upon strength. At the 
same time strength depends upon an adherence to 
the standard of righteousness and truth. 



progress. 



I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people 
there was none with me * * And I looked, and there 
was jzone to help ; and I wondered that there was none to 
uphold. — Isaiah lxiii : 3-5. 

" Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll ! 

Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 

Till thou at length art free. 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! " 

An extreme conservatism mobs its Garrisons, 
threatens its Luthers, beheads its John Baptists, 
and crucifies its Christ. The tendency of human 
nature is towards conservatism rather than away 



from it. Real reformers, even in a good cause,, 
must suffer at the hands of those they would 
benefit. There is little danger of people rushing 
into radicalism, as if in haste. Such a conserva- 
tism, resisting even real benefits, is, at the same 
time, the national and spiritual safeguard against, 
threatening dangers; but woe to those who would 
deny progress, or in turn would cut loose their 
connection with the past. 

The self-seeking man is not the man God seeks. 
He who desires the divine favor, will have no care 
for the rising or ebbing tides of popularity. You 
cannot imagine John the Baptist seeking favor 
with the Pharisees; nor imagine him desirous of 
applause in Jerusalem. Rather let us not insult 
the brave man, whose pure heart knew no timid 
fear. It is a pitiable expression of human nature, 
when any one, for the sake of human friendships, 
will abate one jot or tittle of divine truth; or who, 
for such a friendship, will swerve a hair's breadth 
from what he knows is God's will. The kingdom 
of God is not ushered in by timid men. The 
upbuilding of society is not accomplished by time- 
servers, nor by those whose self-love usurps the 
place due to God. 

In living for God, we live for our fellowmen ; 
no other life is worth living. 



The two chief sources of all true knowledge, 
are education and inspiration. Education is 
development of the personal powers; inspiration 
breathes into man new truths. You may educate 
one through all his years, yet, if you teach him 
nothing new, he has been but little favored. 
Education is conservative ; inspiration is progress- 
ive. Education is timid ; inspiration is daring and 
brave. Every great stage of human progress has 
resulted upon some new inspiration of truth, as men 
apprehend it. Not by developing what is in man 
is the world overcome ; but when in faith man 
apprehends the truths of God and inspires men 
with these, then he is doing his part in the 
reformation of the world for Christ. "This is the 
victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 




15 



Pi}ilosopl}icaL 



We spend our years as a tale that is told. — Ps. XC : 9. 
My days are stvifter than a iveaver''s shuttle. — JOB 
VIT : 6. 

" Let's take the instant by the forward top, 
For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees, 
The inaudible and noiseless foot of time 
Steals, ere we can effect them." 

If for one day the whole world would consent 
to give up its selfishness and its apathy, that one 
day of unselfish endeavor would be the twilight of 
the millennial glory. 

The really intensest men are usually perfectly 
calm and cool : martyrs have never been frantic. 

Gentleness in a cripple may be mightier than 
the strength of a Samson. 

Skepticism crowds in where luxuries are most 
plenty, rather than where life is hard. Men are 
more easily reached in religious matters when the 
hard times have plowed their furrows of care. The 
danger is that an undue value and dependence 
upon lesser things may dull the vision towards 
what are spiritual. 

God does not wait to see in what kind of a 
house we live before He calls us. 

Sunny-hearted people are not doubters either 
of their fellows or of the word of God. 

16 



No man is prepared to die who is unprepared 
to live. 

The question that we should ask upon hearing 
of the death of a man is not : What did he leave ? 
but what did he do while in life. 

In a gambhng phrase, we "deal in futures" 
from our infancy up. Men may barter heaven for 
some of the paltry things of this earth before they 
leave this life. 

God is the mother brushing away the children's 
tears. 

Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at 
my gates, waiting at the posts of 7ny doors. For who so 
findeth m,e, findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the 
Lord. But he that sinneth against m.e wrongeth his 
own soul : all that hate m,e love death. — Prov. VIII : 
34-36. 

" From his lips truth, limpid,without error flowed. 
Disease fled from his touch. Pain heard him and was not. 
Despair smiled in his presence. Devils knew, and trembled. 
He bent all nature to His will. The tempest sank. 
He whispering, into waveless calm. The bread 
Given from His hand fed thousands, and to spare. 

17 



The stormy waters, as the solid rock 

Were pavement for his footstep. Death itself, 

With vain reluctancy yielded its prey 

To the stern mandate of the Prince of Life." 

The Christian life is a heavy struggle, not 
against other folks, but against ourselves. 

Never can a healthy Christian nature allow 
sacred Christian truths to become secondary in 
importance. 

The professing Christian who is not as intense 
in Christian purpose as he is in his daily vocation 
has reason to question his hope. 

Christian conversation is one of the mightiest 
agencies in the revival of God's work. 

A worldly Christian has no power in turning a 
soul to Christ. 

The more we do for Christ the more we see to 
do ; the more we do the more we can do. 

The secret of Christianity is found in doing for 
others, to help them. It was Christ who put this 
truth thus tersely: "Whosoever will be great 
among you, let him be your servant." Service 
given for others' sake is always greater than service 
given for self. 

Christ does not call upon us to master others, 
but self. 

Humanity can never elevate men above itself. 

i8 



No man ever has evolved from his own being a 
greatness that will evangelize the world. The 
secret of human greatness lies in what it finds out 
of divine law, not in what it originates. No one can 
give inspiration who is not himself inspired. 

John was the disciple whom Christ especially- 
loved. He had shared with Peter and James great 
and special privileges. When Peter made so 
conspicuous a shipwreck of his faith, John remained 
steadfast. The world would have chosen John, the 
gifted speaker, the loving disciple, the unswerving 
friend, as the preacher of Pentecost: but Christ 
chose otherwise. 

Christ was what he taught. 

The gospel of Christ gives peace and at the 
same time brings its possessor under the flail. It 
gives peace, but not as the world gives. 

To become Christlike we must come into His 
image by dropping our defects one by one. 

There is no virtue known among men that has 
not its highest exponent in Christ. 

There is no such thing as a hard-hearted 
Christian. The heart that can not suffer is a heart 
that can not be any more glad than it is sorrowful. 
It is as much our duty to suffer for others as it was 



Christ's. I suspect that there is nothing in our 
natures in which we are so much behind our duty 
as we are in this. 

The widening power of goodness is something 
beautiful to contemplate: but the same law of 
progress works out the malignity of sin. No 
one's life stops with the breath. No unbeliever 
has ever lived to himself alone. Voltaire 
is not dead. Thomas Paine begged that 
they burn or stop the circulation of his books ; but 
his work of sowing doubt and unbelief is still 
going on. Such men cannot die. Influence is 
wider than the mere limits of existence. It 
perpetuates itself. It wings the air, and is fragrant 
with sweetness or flagrant with wretchedness and 
despair. 

The choices of men are between God and self. 
To please God or to please self, — these are the 
alternatives. To please God involves a perfect self- 
denial whenever self stands in the way. 



^•^ 



iLofae. 

Beloved, let us love one another ; for love is of God ; 
and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth 
God. — I John iv : 7. 

" Love suffereth long, and is kind; 
Love envieth not ; 

Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 
Doth not behave itself unseemly, 
Taketh not her own, 
Is not easily provoked, 
Thinketh no evil ; 

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; 
Beareth all things, believeth all things, 
Hopeth all things, endureth all things." 

Affection has its martyrs ; but mere affection 
is not love. The honess of the jungle will die for 
her whelps. The eagle will fight to the death for 
her eaglets that can not fly. There is affection of 
some degree in every bird winging the skies ; in 
every brute of the planet ; in every human soul ; 
natural affection. The outworking of natural 
affection is not religion ; but religion makes use of 
the affections as truly as it makes use of the 
reason. Even murderers have natural affection 
for their own ; but that is not love of which Christ 
speaks. Affection is human; love is of God. 
Affection never gets away from self; love puts 
self under its feet. Love regenerates affection. 
Affection is concerned with the present moment; 
love in its sweep covers eternity. Affection allows 



self-will; love insists upon self-denial. Affection 
coaxes; love warns. Affection may be blind; 
often is; but love is always on the watch. 
Ajff ection dresses the child in gossamer ; cases the 
feet so daintily that a snow-flake can pierce with 
its chill ; but love sees death in the gossamer and 
the shoes. Love is not an instinctive affection, 
but is a principle. Love is of God, for God 
is love. 

Is it not true that, as Jacob's life seemed to 
hang on the life of Benjamin, so your father's life 
hangs more and more on your life ? Do you write 
him often ? What better possession than a father's 
love? 

In a certain sense as chivalry made the knights 
of the dark ages courageous ; as love for Napoleon 
made his soldiers great ; so the consciousness of 
love to God inspires all who possess it. Godliness 
adds power, and from the nature of the case it can 
not be otherwise. 

There is nothing in this world so beautiful as a 
loving heart. No amount of earthly gain can hurt 
it. It rises above the richest surroundings in more 
than regal power. It does not look for its shadow 
upon velvets and silks. It does not count the 



uncarpeted floor too cheap for its steps. The 
purest diamond God ever made to flash its 
wondrous light is none too good for many a finger 
whose hand is rich in generosity. Gems of sea 
and land cannot outrival the purity and beauty of a 
life of sympathy. 



As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. — Josh. 
XXIV: 15. 

' • Sweet is the smile of home ; the mutual look 
When hearts are of each other sure ; 
Sweet all the joys that crowd the household nook. 
The haunts of all affections pure." 

The best word for Heaven is home. The 
sweetest name on earth is mother. The symbol of 
strongest care is father. The token of a common 
affection is brother and sister. 

Home loses its power when it becomes a second 
rate place. It is not the richness of its frescoes, 
but the love of the heart that makes it precious. 

23 



No child can ever fully appreciate his parents 
— at least not until he reaches man's estate. 

A home where the Bible is never touched 
except to be dusted; where no prayer is ever 
voiced; where no mention is ever made of Him 
whose words have changed the course of empires ; 
such a home is deserving of pity. It is nerveless 
and powerless for good. 

Other things being equal, good citizenship 
demands three principles : obedience, reverence 
and generosity. Without obedience, law is power- 
less ; without reverence, the people become a mob ; 
and without generosity, selfishness displaces every 
noble sentiment. These same three principles 
obtain in every true home, thus making the home 
the nursery of the state. As law is the basis of the 
national life, so there must be a law in every home. 
Lawless children grow up into lawless citizens. 
The law of love is the safeguard of society ; and 
only in proportion to the supremacy of this law in 
the homes of the land, can the rising generation 
be trusted. If the home does not inculcate 
generous actions, the children are simply infant- 
anarchists. In the largest sense, they who rock 
the cradles, rule the world. 

24 



That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, 
not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it 
should be holy and without blemish. — Eph. V: 27. 

" One holy church of God appears 

Through every age and race, 
• Unwasted by the lapse of years, 

Unchanged by changing place." 

A clean Church means more than the building 
the sexton sweeps; a warm Church is not indi- 
cated by Farenheit's thermometer ; a bright 
Church does not gain its lights from deathly carbon 
gleaming from its chandeliers ; a mighty Church 
means men and women filled with the Spirit of 
God. A Herod built the Temple ; hung the 
tapestries for which Tyrian purple was not too 
rich ; lavished the gold upon building and altar ; 
crowned its dome with gold whose thickness no 
tempest could disturb; but a thousand Herods 
could neither make nor destroy a Church. Shylock 
can build what architects plan, but ten thousand 
times ten thousand Shylocks can not form a 
Church. A Constantine can make an empire 
Christian in name, and imagine he has seen a 
flaming cross in the skies ; but even a Constantine 



is no larger in God's sight than the weakest 
trembling slave, fearing for his life. 

Paganism says : the world for self ; Christian- 
ity says: self for the world. 

It is not the question of how many distin- 
guished citizens occupy its pews; nor how much or 
how little wealth is counted upon the assessor's 
books ; not how many compose the congregations ; 
not how much of learning is represented among the 
worshipers ; but the true value of the Church is to 
be measured by what it has of the spirit of God. 

The only conserving force in the Church is the 
Spirit of God. All the forms and ceremonies are 
utterly without power. They are husks 
and nothing else. They tend to keep people 
irreligious, instead of religious, unless the presence 
of God is felt. 

The evil is half done when any man imagines 
that some one else can do his own peculiar work. 
Too much church work is done by proxies. 

Among nearly four thousand churches of our 
denomination this church stands alone, in its name. 
" Piedmont " was historic long before the rock of 
Plymouth was pressed by the feet of the Pilgrims. 
Centuries before Luther the name was honored as 
that of a people whose faith and whose lives were 
as pure as the untrodden snow of the Alps, on 

26 



which they daily looked. Bearing such a name it 
is incumbent upon us to exemplify its meaning by 
a profound Christian devotion, which neither costly 
sacrifices nor personal suffering shall weaken. 

Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips 
shall praise Thee. — Psalm lxiii : 3. 

" There are in this loud stirring tide 

Of human care and crime, 
With whom the melodies abide 

Of th' everlasting chime ; 
Who carry music in the heart 

Through dusty lane and wrangling mart, 
Plying their daily task with busier feet; 

Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat." 

The incomparable John Newton with Handel's 
oratorio, "The Messiah," for his text, delivered fifty 
sermons upon the theme, Praise is as natural as 
Prayer. To express the sublimity of creation we 
are told of the chorus, v/hen the morning stars sang 
together, and the sons of God shouted for joy ; and 
in the great day to come, men and angels shall 
break forth into singing while countless harpers 
shall keep time to the rythm of the song, " Worthy 
the Lamb." The matchless ending of the Chris- 
tian's life, the Apostle declares, shall be a song of 
victory. 

27 



The philosophy of praise accepts for its 
basis human gratitude, beyond this we cannot go. 
Nature furnishes the copy for the painter, but there 
is no music in nature. The winds of night sigh in 
their varied monotony; the nightingale sings its 
own glad song; the lark warbles his "sightless 
song" over the meadows; the thunder rolls its 
tremulous tones along the sky; and surge after 
surge shrieks at the base of the granite cliff ; but 
no one nor all of these is music. " Music is the 
creation of man," and this creation is the means by 
which he expresses his gratitude to God. 

Men at their daily toil, children at their play, 
women in their homes, are singing sweeter songs 
than the enemies of Christ can write. 

Infidelity cannot sing, and that which cannot 
sing cannot succeed. 

The Church Bell : What out-of-door note is 
sweeter 1 The birds hush their warbling at the 
chimes' clear call at eventide. The sound of its 
peal makes music over every river and plain. It 
hastens to his prayers the dweller among the 
Russian snows ; and rouses from his dreamy 
lethargy the inhabitant under southern skies. The 
echoes have rung among the Alps, struck by the 

28 



pious monks from their lonely convent. Sailors 
coasting every sea have heard the music caught 
by the well-jfilled sails. 

Solttis. 

Where hast thou gleaned to-day? — RUTH II: 19. 

" What have I learnt where'er I've been, 
From all I've heard, from all I've seen ? 
What have I more that's worth the knowing ? 
What have I done that's worth the doing ? 
What have I sought that I should shun ? 
What duties have I left undone ? " 

If religion is not worth a sacrifice it is not 
worth as much as we profess. 

Many people spend more time on a comma 
than upon the written truth in which the comma 
occurs. 

Infidelity is often louder voiced in conduct 
than in speech. 

God does not always turn history upon the 
deeds of those who run up and down marble steps : 

29 



nor always make his heralds those who have been 
trained in the schools; nor always choose for 
saviors those who could receive a majority of votes. 

That which can be carried in the pocket can- 
not be carried in the head. But there is something 
superior even to education. It is a right spirit and 
a loving heart. 

Thank God for a justice that never takes into 
account what men may think about it ! 

The earth is God's thought, and the stars are 
the lamps where He works. 

Religion does not mean one great cross in some 
conspicuous place ; but it means a constant cross- 
bearing; although love never stops to count its 
crosses. 

Three great elements constitute greatness : a 
faith that can uproot and level mountains ; a hope 
that outlasts eternity ; and love that takes in the 
world ; but of the three, the greatest is love. 

All punishment results from some deliberate 
choice of evil. 

The deepest conviction of sin comes after con- 
version, rather than before. 

Men do not inherit greatness ; this comes from 
doing rather than from getting. 

30 



The men who succeed best are they who use 
their opportunities with the least waste either of 
calculation or of time. 

It is not so much great deeds God calls for 
as great men, strong men. In this, the world's 
judgment is but an echo of the divine, except as 
we often mistake some brilliant act for the sign of 
strength. The divine call is for strong men, mighty 
men, and every man can be strong. Symmetry of 
one's whole nature is essential to real strength. 

The gospel of Christ is the greatest paradox 
in history. 

There is not a man that can hold an apple 
blossom in one hand, and pointing up with the 
other, say : There is no God. 

Let us remember that happiness and blessed- 
ness are two distinct terms. "Blessed" is a Christian 
word, while "happy" is a pagan word. "Happi- 
ness" denotes almost every kind of enjoyment, while 
"blessedness" is that refined enjoyment that comes 
from the purest social or religious affection. There 
is no blessedness of experience where the life is not 
given to others. The miser may possibly be happy, 
while the philanthropist is blessed. Blessedness is 
what God gives. A blessed New Year is a better 
wish than "A Happy New Year." 

31 



ffiriet 

Yea, though I walk throti^h the valley of the shadow of 
death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy 
rod and Thy staff they comfort me. — PsALM XXIII : 4. 

"And ye, beneath life's crushing load, 

Whose forms are bending low, 
Who toil along the climbing way 

With painful steps and slow, 
Look now ! for glad and golden hours 

Come swiftly on the wing ; 
Oh, rest beside the weary road 

And hear the angels sing ! " 

Sorrows can be told, but grief is voiceless. 
We feel it, but can not speak it. It finds no solace 
in the crowded streets or halls of fashion. Grief 
buries itself in our deepest affections, like the 
grave of its object. It listens to the moaning 
night-wind as an echo of its own emotions. It is 
always watching for the face it shall never see. 
It loves the silence of the night rather than the 
bustle of the day. It is swayed by the music of 
the minor key. How rare the home that knows 
it not! The more affectionate the home, the 
deeper the sorrow. Grief is always the child of 
love; and its depth is measured by its silence. 
They who sing the sweetest in heaven, leave the 
saddest hearts here. 

The streets of gold are better than these 
streets of snow. The mansions of God are bet- 

32 



ter than our mansions. The trees of heaven 
never stand with withering, falling leaves. Its 
river is never frozen. The harps of the great 
orchestra are never broken ; the voices that sing 
are never discordant ; and God has wiped away all 
tears. Our night is no night to them. Their love 
for us brightens their joy ; and our love for them 
deepens our grief. Thus love and grief grow ever 
on earth from the same stock, but joy shall come 
in the eternal morning, and we shall then look 
back, even as our loved ones are now looking 
upon us, and almost wonder why we ever wept at 
all. 

JFattJ). 

All things are possible to him that believeth. — Mark 
IX : 23. 

Who through faith stibdued kingdoms, -wrought right- 
eousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 
out of weakness were made strong.^-H.EB. XI : 33-34. 

" Have faith in God, and wait, 
Although He linger long, 
He never comes too late." 

Our work is not to advise God what to do, but 
to prove Him and see what He will do, according 
to our capacity to receive. 

33 



It is only the praying church that is fitted to 
receive the blessings that follow prayer. 

The age of reason does not overturn faith. 
Faith is not a substitute for knowledge ; faith is 
knowledge. In this reason and faith agree, and 
between the two there is no antagonism. Faith 
and reason seek precisely the same end, and the 
two can never diverge. Reason says, " I must see 
in order to believe;" faith says, " I must believe in 
order to see." Faith tells me what to believe; 
reason tells me why I believe. The believer has 
the deepest right to inquire concerning the object 
of his faith. Reason is never the antagonist of 
faith, and yet such is a common misapprehension. 
Faith believes what has never been verified ; so 
does reason. Let a single fact illustrate. Reason 
says the sun will rise to-morrow morning ; so does 
faith ; and yet even God has not seen to-morrow's 
sunrise, much less has man. Even reason does 
not verify all it accepts ; in fact, it can not. Neither 
can see to-morrow's sunrise until to-morrow shall 
come. Hence it is that reason, as well as faith, is 
opposed to sight. 

The conflict is not between faith and reason ; 
but between faith and sight, as it is between 
reason and sight. Faith is knowledge of the 
invisible and mysterious, while reason seeks the 

34 



wherefore of the mysterious. Faith is the more 
comprehensive, while reason is the more analytical. 
Faith anticipates what the reason more slowly 
discovers. The truest faith demands the exercise 
of the reason ; insists upon the conclusions of the 
profoundest scholarship. The great conflict is 
between faith (including reason) and materialism ; 
or faith and sight. 

A prayer, without attempting to carry into 
effect what we say in words, is of no effect. There 
is no divine promise that God will do for us what 
we can do for ourselves ; but that he will help us 
tliere is no doubt. 

God will take care of heaven if we will take 
care of ourselves. A faith that depends upon what 
it receives is no faith at all. 



fgope. 



Hope maketh not ashamed. — Romans v : 5. 

" No star is ever lost we once have seen, 
We always may be what we might have been, 
Since Good, though only thought, has life and breath, 
God's life — can always be redeemed from death; 
The hopes that lost in some far distance seem. 
May be the truer life, and this the dream." 

35 



It takes a great hope to give courage. God 
never sends his servants out alone ; without Him 
we can do nothing. 

The world cannot crush God's children. It 
can crucify, but it cannot guard their tomb. It can 
crown with thorns, but it cannot, with all its might, 
cast off from memory the crown of the just. It 
can build bonfires, make dungeons and sharpen 
sabres, but it cannot weaken the joys that count 
all these only as symbols of their swift entrance 
upon a better life. 

The hope of eternity was never intended to 
make its possessor dumb. 



®t Immortalitij. 

Tkis corruption must put on incorruption, and this 
mortal must put on immortalitv. — i CoR. xv : 53. 

" It must be so, Plato; thou reasoneth well! 

Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire? 

This longing after immortality? 

'Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 

'Tis heaven itself that points out a hereafter 

And intimates eternity to man." 

.36 



If the teachings of Paul as to the larger life 
were, and are, false, his magnificent career was 
only that of a fool. If the life we Hve goes down 
with the flesh, the best men of the world have 
been deceived. In such a case, Paul was coura- 
geous for nothing. Martyrs and heroes were, in 
such an event, acting a foolish part. If there is no 
continuance of Hfe, the life of Christ, in its 
self-sacrifice, was a tremendous mistake. Does 
there not seem an incongruity in the idea of the 
wisest and most helpful of the race being those 
who have been the most deceived ? 

The scales of Troy weight are not the scales 
God weighs souls in. Marble is no colder than the 
human frame when the soul is gone. This soul is 
God's. What will you give in exchange for it? 
Will you give pleasure, wealth, things that perish ? 

Limit man's enjoyment to this life alone and 
even hope is tinged with despair. If men believed 
there is no other life, the world would go mad. 

We are living in eternity upon a little piece of 
borrowed time. 

Somewhere in time the pivotal moment is 
lived that fixes the complexion of eternity. 

The passing moment we call "now" may be as 
solemn as the great Judgment Day. 

37 



Time is always on the side of true worth; 
immortality has no alcove for shams except for 
their consignment to oblivion. 

Heaven is not a mere prize for those who 
have been faithful here, but is rather the highest 
school. It denotes a state; not a change of 
character or of purpose in those who are worthy of 
reaching it. 

The religion that makes no use of song is 
neither permanent nor useful. Infidelity cannot 
sing; having nothing of the sublime and majestic 
for its inspiration, it knows no higher being than 
man. If men were not immortal they would not 
sing — they could not. The greatness of the hope 
gives the greatness of the song. 

Does not the end of the Christian life warrant 
its beginning? Has the Christian hope ever 
darkened the invalid's chamber.? Has it ever 
checked a rational joy or saddened the bed of 
death? Has it allowed its possessor to be 
dishonest? Has it ever given the selfish man a 
longer lease of selfishness? Has it ever been 
justly accused of choosing darkness rather than 
light? Does such a hope in its purity prefer 
ignorance rather than knowledge for its possessor? 
It seeks only for the best. It is the only path of 
true living and success. 

38 



Coticlustott* 

The Lord bless thee and keep thee ; the Lord make His 
face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee ; the 
Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee 
peace. — Num. vi : 24-26. 

It was the comfort of Joshua to know that the 
Lord would be with him. There was assurance in 
the words: "And the Lord he it is that goeth 
before thee ; he will be with thee ; he will not fail 
thee, neither forsake thee; fear not, neither be 
dismayed." As of Israel, so of Piedmont Church 
may these cheering words hold true. Take them as 
spoken by One who has never made a promise 
He has not kept so far, and may He add His blessing 
to the past in bringing you into a yet brighter 
future. Amen. 




39 



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